Jonathan Newell Was the Sober Monitor. He Wasn't Sober.

The sober monitor at a Cornell fraternity party where a woman says she was drugged and gang raped was supposed to be the one wearing a special vest and staying sober the whole night. According to TMZ, that monitor was Jonathan Newell.

Newell is already known for the "free p****y" Snapchat he sent to the Chi Phi group chat the night of the incident. Now, TMZ reports that records obtained by The New York Times show he was listed as a "trained event monitor" on the paperwork for the party in October 2024. That designation required him to stay sober and wear something that would make him visible to cops and partygoers in an emergency.

Two days after the party, Newell texted Jane Doe, the woman who has filed a civil lawsuit alleging gang rape. "Me and Matt both feel like s*** for being too f***ed up to shut it down and kick people out before it got out of hand," he wrote, according to texts obtained by TMZ.

In the same text chain, Jane mentions doing a line of ketamine off Newell's penis that night. Newell responded: "I have no memory of that." He goes on to say he was "f***ed up" at the party and would have shut it down "the second guys started walking in the room" if he had been more aware.

The takeaway? The person designated to keep the party safe was allegedly too drunk to remember or act. That's a gap in the fraternity's safety plan that the lawsuit will likely explore.

• Chi Phi
• Cornell University
• gang rape allegations
• Jonathan Newell
• Snapchat
• sober monitor